Musical instrument construction

ABSTRACT

A HAND HELD MUSICAL INSTRUMENT INCLUDING A CONTOURED SOUND RESONATING BOX WHICH COMFORTABLY AND EASILY FITS INTO THE HANDS OF A USER THEREOF. A PLAURALITY OF SOUND PRODUCING WIRES OR RODS EXTEND FORWARDLY FROM A BRIDGE SECURED TO ONE END OF THE SOUND RESONATING BOX, THE DISTANCE THE WIRES OR RODS EXTEND FROM THE BRIDGE DETERMINES THE MUSICAL TONE QUALITY OF EACH WIRE OR ROD. EACH WIRE OR ROD HAS A PORTION THEREOF EXTENDING REARWARDLY FROM THE BRIDGE INTO AND THROUGH A CHANNEL SHAPED HOLDER AND   HAS FORMED AT THE REAR END THEREOF, BEHIND THE HOLDER, A FINGER GRIPPING PORTION TO ENABLE THE USER QUICKLY AND EASILY TO ADJUST THE EXTENT TO WHICH OF A PARTICULAR WIRE OR ROD PROJECTS FORWARDLY BEYOND THE BRIDGE. THE WIRES. OR RODS ARE ADJUSTED TO PROVIDE AN INTERLEAVING INNER AND OUTER GROUPING THEREOF SO SOUNDS ABOUT AN OCTAVE APART CAN BE PRODUCED BY A SINGLE PLUCKING OPERATION.

Oct. 5, 1971 J. 5. WILSON ETAi 3,610,085

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CONSTRUCTION Filed 001;. l, 1969 5 I 4 w a 4 jfiuerzforzs Jmes 3. [1 6630]? United States Patent 01 fee 31,610,085 Patented Oct 5, 1971 3,610,085 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CONSTRUCTION James B. Wilson and Fred Kaz, Chicago, Ill., assignors to Voice of the Flower, Ltd., Chicago, Ill. Filed Oct. 1, 1969, Ser. No. 862,828 Int. Cl. Gd 13/08 US. Cl. 84-402 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A hand held musical instrument including a contoured sound resonating box which comfortably and easily fits into the hands of a user thereof. A plurality of sound producing wires or rods extend forwardly from a bridge secured to one end of the sound resonating box, the distance the wires or rods extend from the bridge determines the musical tone quality of each wire or rod. Each Wire or rod has a portion thereof extending rearwardly from the bridge into and through a channel shaped holder and has formed at the rear end thereof, behind the holder, a finger gripping portion to enable the user quickly and easily to adjust the extent to which of a particular wire or rod projects forwardly beyond the bridge. The wires or rods are adjusted to provide an interleaving inner and outer grouping thereof so sounds about an octave aparts can be produced by a single plucking operation.

This invention relates generally to an African musical instrument sometimes referred to as a Mbira.

The Mibra is believed to have originated in Africa over five hundred years ago. There are many different varieties of this type of musical instrument which are designed and fashioned to produce different musical tones. This type of musical instrument generally incorporates a hollow resonating body or box over which is mounted a plurality of sound producing vibrating wires or rods, the forward free end portions thereof extending beyond a bridge to form a keyboard in easy reach of the users thumbs so that manipulation of the free ends of the Wires or rods by the users thumbs will cause vibration thereof to produce musical sounds. The hollow resonating box amplifies the sound as well as gives the musical tone a mellow quality. The portions of the wires or rods extending rearwardly of the bridge passes through a holder which firmly holds the wires or rods firmly against the bridge. In the prior Mbira constructions, the rear ends of the wires or rods where straight and required tools like pliers to grip the same to pull or push them through the holder to vary their extent forwardly of the bridge to adjust the tone produced thereby. However, this required much time and effort on the part of the user. Also, the free ends of the wires or rods which are manipulated were adjusted so they formed a single row of progressively varying length forwardly of the bridge. The single row configuration limited the number of wires or rods that could be accommodated in a given sized area over the resonating box and only a single sound could be easily produced by a single plucking movement of the thumb.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a Mbira musical instrument which is easy to play and comfortable in the hands of the user.

Another object of this invention is to provide a Mbira musical instrument wherein the tone quality of each sound producing rod can be adjusted quickly and easily without use of extra mechanical means.

A further object of this invention is to provide a Mbira musial instrument which produces new and interesting musical sounds using the same simple plucking motion heretofore used to play such an instrument.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a Mbira musical instrument which is of simple and inexpensive construction.

Briefly, the Mbira musical instrument in accordance with the most preferred form of this invention has a sound resonating box at its front end contoured semicircular in configuration, comfortably to fit into the hands of the user. A holder member is mounted to the top of the box at one end thereof to support a plurality of resilient sound producing wires or rods in positions where they are depressed against a bridge-forming Wall from which they extend in varying degrees. The front ends of the wires or rods form a unique Mbira keyboard arrangement which is easily reached by the thumbs of the user and produce a unique combination of musical tones in a Mbira in a single plucking motion of one or both thumbs of the user. The bridge-forming wall and holder member preferably are formed by a single sheet metal stamping shaped to provide a minimum loading on the sound resonating box.

The length of the wires or rods extending from the bridge-forming wall to the front ends thereof determines the frequency of vibration of such Wires or rods, and, as such, determines the musical tone or note produced by each wire or rod. One of the most significant unique features of the invention in that, unlike the usual Mbira keyboard arrangement when the front ends of the successively located wires or rods terminate at gradually increasing or decreasing distances from the bridge-forming wall, the ends of such successively located wires or rods are located alternately at greater and lesser distances from the bridge-forming wall to form two different interleaving groupings thereof. The front ends of the group of wires or rods nearest the bridge-forming wall are located progressively greater and/ or lesser distances from the bridge-forming wall to form successive notes of a scale displaced preferably one octave higher than the corresponding wires or rods of the other group thereof. Also, the corresponding or adjacent wires or rods of the two groups are within easy reach of the same thumb of the user. Thus, the front end of each wire or rod in one of the groups thereof is located in front of or behind a wire or rod in the other group thereof, and the thumb of the user in a single plucking motion vibrates the corresponding or adjacent wires or rods in the two groups thereof to produce two widely different tones preferably in different octaves.

The distance each wire or rod projects forwardly of the bridge-forming wall is most advantageously made adjustable by the simple manual pulling or pushing thereof by forming at the rear end of each wire or rod behind the holder member into an easy grip configuration, such as a ring. Each wire or rod is frictionally held within apertures in the holder member and can then be easily pulled or pushed into its proper tone producing position.

Other features, objects and advantages of this invention will be more fully realized and understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals throughout the various views of the drawings are intended to designate similar elements or components.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a musical instrument constructed in accordance with this invention and illustrated in the hands of a user;

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the musical instrument I of FIG. 1 taken along line 22 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the musical instrument of FIG. 1 showing the users fingers engaging apertures in the bottom thereof to control the tone quality of the musical instrument.

Referring now to the drawings, a Mbira, constructed in accordance with this invention, is designated generally by reference numeral and comprises a sound resonating box 12 having one end 12a thereof contoured preferably substantially semicircular in configuration comfortably to fit into the hands of a user of the Mbira 10. A keyboard-like area 13 is formed on top of the sound resonating box 12 at which a plurality of vibratable rods 26 and 28 extend from a bridge-forming wall 24 and have their front ends 26a and 28a, respectively, within easy reach of the thumbs of the user when the musical instrument is played. Preferably, the rods 26 extend from the bridge-forming wall 24 a greater distance than do the rods 28 and are adjusted to produce musical notes which are about an octave lower than that produced by the rods 28, an exact octave difference being the most preferred arrangement. This arrangement allows the user of the Mbira 10 to play two musical notes one octave apart with a single stroke of a thumb.

The sound resonating box 12 includes a top wall formed of a sound resonating board 14 and a bottom wall 16 of the same configuration and a contoured wrap-around side wall 18. A rear wall 20 is secured to the sound resonating box 12 and has an aperture 20a formed therein to provide means readily to receive a small microphone within the sound resonating box so that the musical notes played on the musical instrument 10 can be amplified and reproduced in a loudspeaker system if desired.

The bottom wall 16 has a pair of openings 16a and 16b formed therein and positioned so as to be closed by the fingers of the users hands to control the tone quality of the resonating box 12 during playing of the musical instrument. That is, rapidly opening and closing the aperture 16a and 16b will produce a vibrato action.

The plurality of sound producing, vibrating rods 26 and 28 are preferably rectangular in cross section and secured to the top of the sound resonating board 14 by a key holder 23, it being understood that any suitable configuration of sound producing rods may be used, such as round wires, or the like. The rods 26 and '28 are positioned to form two interleaving groups of rods 26 and 28 respectively closer and further from the bridge-forming wall so each group produces successive notes of a scale in different, preferably adjacent octaves. The rods 26 are preferably straight at their ends 26a to provide a lower keyboard and the rods 28 are preferably bent at their ends 28a to be displaced upwardly, and as here shown, rearwardly of the end 26a of the corresponding rod in the other group of rods 26 to provide an upper keyboard. Each of the sound producing rods 26 or 28 has projecting rearwardly of the key holder 23 rod portion 2612 or 28b which terminate in finger gripping means 26c or 280, respectively, to enable the user quickly and easily to change the musical note or tone of any given rod. Preferably, the finger gripping means 26c and 280 have a ring shaped configuration.

The key holder 23 and the bridge-forming wall 24 form an integral unit 22 which is spaced from the key holder 23 by a connecting wall portion 220. The integral unit 22 is secured to the top of the sound resonating board 14 by a pair of screws 25 which extend into a pair of blocks 19 within the box 12. To minimize the dampening effect of the flat connecting wall portion 22a, an elongated aperture 22b is formed therein thus reducing the amount of material in actual contact with the sound resonating board 14. The illustrated keyholder 23 is U-shaped in cross section, and the integral unit 22 can be considered generally S-shaped in cross section.

A plurality of pairs of apertures 23a and 231) are formed in the side walls of the key holder 23 to receive associated ones of the two groups of rods 26 and 28 and together with the bridge member 24 securely but adjustably hold the rods 26 and 28 with their front ends 26a and 28a, respectively, terminating at the keyboard area 13. The apertures 23a and 23b are positioned misaligned with respect to the bridge-forming wall 24 and, as such, provide bends 26d and 28d in the respective rods 26 and 28 frictionally to secure and hold the rods in a preselected position. The angle formed by the misaligned holes 23a and 23b and the bridge member 24 is such as to firmly hold the rods 26' and 28 in position with the right amount of tension so that the vibrating quality of the wires or rods is just right to produce the desired tones.

When it is desired to adjust the tone of a wire or rod 26 or 28, the finger gripping portion 266 or 286 formed at the rear ends of the oppositely directed portion 26b or 28b provides means easily to pull or push the wire or rod to a new desired position. The spacings of the ends of the rods 26 and 28 from the bridge-forming wall 24 determines the musical notes or tones thereof.

The Mbira of the present invention in its most preferred form thus provides a rather unique sound, is comfortable to hold and is an easy to adjust musical instrument.

Accordingly, it will be understood that variations and modifications of this invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts disclosed herein.

We claim:

1. A thumb operated musical instrument, comprising: a sound resonating box having a front end portion to fit into the palms of the hands of the user and of a dimension to allow the thumbs of the user holding the box to reach a keyboard area on top of the sound resonating box; key holder means on top of the rear end portion of the said sound resonating box; bridge-forming wall means on the top of said sound resonating box between said keyboard area and said key holder means; a plurality of generally horizontally spaced sound producing, elongated vibrating wires or rods slidably frictionally anchored in said key holder means and urged against said bridgeforming wall; said wires or rods extending forwardly from said bridge-forming wall and terminating over the keyboard area of said sound resonating box to form a keyboard of the musical instrument, the front ends of said sound producing wires or rods being manipulatable by the thumbs of the user to produce musical sounds from the musical instrument, and finger gripping means extending from each of said sound producing, elongated, vibrating wires or rods enabling the user of the musical instrument quickly and easily to adjust the tone of any selected one of said sound producing, elongated vibrating wires or rods, said sound producing, elongated vibrating wires or rods having portions thereof extending rearwardly from said key holder means, and said finger gripping means being formed on said rearwardly extending portions of said wires or rods which finger gripping? means are short vertical extensions projecting transversely from the rear end portions of said wire or rods.

2. The thumb operated musical instrument of claim 1 wherein said short extension forming said finger gripping portions of said wires or rods are ring-shaped.

3. The thumb operated musical instrument of claim 1 wherein said key holder means includes spaced legs having a plurality of pairs of apertures which are respectively in alignment along lines passing below said bridge-forming wall through which respective pairs of apertures said sound producing, elongated vibrating wires or rods extend, the portion of said wires or rods between said apertures being bent with the wires or rods being resiliently urged downward against said bridge-forming wall so they are firmly but adjustably held in said key holder means.

4. A thumb operated musical instrument comprising: a sound resonating box having a front end portion to fit into the palms of the hands of the user and of a dimension to allow the thumbs of the user holding the box to reach a keyboard area on top of the sound resonating box; key holder wall means on top of the rear end portion of the same sound resonating box which wall means has spaced front and rear legs; bridge-forming wall means on the top of said sound resonating box between said keyboard area and said key holder wall means, said key holder wall means and said bridge-forming wall means being interconnected by connecting wall means with said key holder wall means and bridge-forming wall means being anchored to said top wall solely by anchoring means extending between said connecting wall means and the top of said sound resonating box; a plurality of sound producing, elongated vibrating wires or rods anchored in apertures in spaced legs of said key holder wall means and being confined to a curved path which urges said wires or rods against said bridge-forming wall 1 means; said wires or rods extending forwardly from said bridge-forming wall means and terminating over the keyboard area of said sound resonating box to form a keyboard of the musical instrument; and the front ends of said sound producing wires or rods being manipulatable by the thumbs of the user to produce musical sounds from the musical instrument.

5. The thumb operated musical instrument of claim 4 wherein said connecting wall means is a flat open framelike portion which is fastened to the top of said sound resonating box.

6. The thumb operated musical instrument of claim 5 wherein said flat frame-like portion has a relatively large opening formed therein to minimize the amount of material thereof engaged with the top of said sound resonating box so as not to dampen the resonating ability of said box.

7. The thumb operated musical instrument of claim 4 wherein said key holder wall means is U-shaped with the open portion thereof facing the top of said sound resonating box, said key holder wall means having spaced legs through which extend said sound producing, elongated vibrating wires or rods, said connecting wall means ex tending forwardly from the forwardmost of said legs and terminating in an upstanding wall forming said bridgeforming wall.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,763,518 6/1930 Haweis 84-408 2,645,970 7/1953 Stabile 84-403 FOREIGN PATENTS 135,810 1919 Great Britain 84-408 287,802 1928 Great Britain 84-408 804,131 1958 Great Britain 84-402 900,796 1962 Great Britain 84-402 RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner J. F. GONZALES, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 84-410 

